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CoolerOpposide [none/use name] @hexbear.net

‼️FIRST EVER SEMI-OFFICAL AGITPROP-OFF CONTEST+CHAT‼️ A golden opportunity sits before our very eyes: There is currently massive grassroots support on TikTok to migrate to the Chinese app Xiaohongshu

What is happening:

Due to massive grassroots backlash to the looming TikTok ban in the US, millions of users are currently creating accounts on Xiaohongshu aka “Little Red Book”. It is currently the top trending app in the Apple App Store.

Why it is special:

This is truly an unprecedented development. Never have regular American and Chinese netizens had the ability to mingle so freely. Even more unprecedented is the fact that most of this early conversation will be regarding backlash to the US itself. This presents us with an opportunity to appeal to a large swath of (mostly young) Americans at the same time.

What the goal is:

We have recently had several chats on this site about how to actually turn posting/effortposting into something positive. Several ideas have been floated regarding Agitprop and how to encourage the creation of engaging content, and many people agreed on the idea of Agitprop contests. That is what we will be trying to do here for the first time ever.

The contest/rules are quite loose here and definitely open to change, so feel free to give your input:

‼️In an effort to help shepard the rapidly growing disgruntled and pliable new English speaking audience on Xiaohongshu, the leftist post or comment for English speakers on Xiaohongshu that garners the most interactions before January 19th at 5PM GMT will be featured on c/agitprop.‼️

Simply submit by linking the post or comment in the replies of this post. Please try to include some kind of watermark that identifies it as a Hexbear user. Ideally if you can link back here we can foster a few new users as well. Good luck my fellow posters

As of now there are no submissions, so if you’d like to participate just comment a link to your post! Of course, feel free to reuse your own Hexbear posts, and if you want to use somebody else’s post reach out and ask permission first.

147 comments

  • A good idea might be to focus on language learning as agitprop? Lots of people are going to use the app for a bit, get frustrated by not knowing how to read everything and leave.

    Basic reading instruction to follow memes could help with that, as well as posting translated versions of popular memes.

    • I would love this because my anglo brain pan is limited to a single language

      • Don't be too hard on yourself! Learning a language is very difficult. When I mentioned to my Chinese friends that I was trying to learn, they all universally told me to not get discouraged because it's very different to what I'm used to. They experienced the same thing in reverse, basically.

    • so like you want to do "if it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking german now!" but backwards and for chinese?

      very interested to see what happens here

  • I've seen people note that videos they've tried to migrate from TikTok to Xiaohongshu have removed due to watermarks.

    Do we know if a Hexbear watermark will get the content removed?

    It's also possible that those videos were removed for other reasons that the poster didn't understand due to the moderation info being in Mandarin, or that they specifically don't want watermarks from other social media but I thought it was worth mentioning.

  • How can we get as many eyes as possible on James Rehwald's stuff? I think it's probably as good as it's gonna get and there's already a good library of content there covering a broad range of topics. Anyone know of a way to contact him to see if he wants to put his stuff up himself or give permission for someone else to reupload?

    • I doubt he personally goes to the platform considering his line of work in marketing so reposting his videos will probably be the way to get eyes on it there. They’re always so good. I wonder how they’d do feedback-wise with a mixed American and Chinese audience.

      Frankly, assuming he is a principled leftist of some sort, I don’t think he’d have a problem with just openly reposting it until he has a presence on the app (if he even chooses to) since he is likely not just chasing clout

  • I am totally confused.

    • Tiktok might be "banned" because of its association with China. Isn't fleeing to another Chinese platform kind of stupid? Wouldn't it be vulnerable to the same thing?
    • The point of this is to motivate tik tok users to move to Xiaohongshu? Or it is to draw attention to hexbear on Xiaohongshu?
    • This is a shopping website?
    • Why do you think the tik tok audience is "pliable"?

    • Tiktok might be "banned" because of its association with China. Isn't fleeing to another Chinese platform kind of stupid? Wouldn't it be vulnerable to the same thing?

      This is a kind of "fuck you" action. Could it cause the same thing? Yes, but its clear from the posts from USians moving to Xiaohongshu is contrarian on purpose. Its clearly an app for Chinese people, by Chinese people.

      The point of this is to motivate tik tok users to move to Xiaohongshu? Or it is to draw attention to hexbear on Xiaohongshu?

      People are already moving to Xiaohongshu, we don't need to motivate them. My TikTok feed was full of posts about moving there, and how funny it is. The opportunity here is that this app will not tolerate the western propaganda about China. If what I'm seeing from English posters in the app holds true, many of them are curious and asking questions.

      This is a shopping website?

      It's Instagram. It has a shop in the same way that TikTok also has a shop. Definitely would not classify this as a shopping website since that is not what you go to the website for.

      Why do you think the tik tok audience is "pliable"?

      I can't speak for the original poster, but, If TikTok users are willing to use this app, even out of protest, it means that they are at least open-minded enough to accept information about China that they otherwise might not accept else where.

      You also have to remember this is a bipartisan issue for American people. A lot of conservatives and a lot of liberals used TikTok and many of them operated small businesses that sustained them and that is going away. The people mad about TikTok going away crosses both political perspectives and as a result they are collectively angry at the government collectively.

      Only people not using TikTok believe that this action is in the best interests of national security. Everyone who was enjoying their time on the app or making a living on the app understands that there is no national security threat. At a minimum, they agree that this is a form of censorship. They probably will debate on what exactly is being censored though.

      This is how I interpret the idea that the TikTok base is pliable. They are currently primed with anti-government sentiment.

    • It being another Chinese platform is the whole point. It's funny and sends a message that no one cares about the government's stupid sinophobic fearmongering.

    • Isn't fleeing to another Chinese platform kind of stupid? Wouldn't it be vulnerable to the same thing?

      In the long term, yes. But I think that's also kind of the point: the more USians migrate there and see the unmediated realities of life in China, the more pressured the gov will feel to ban it, the more widely unpopular the decision will be. Sort of like a vanguard party in a hopelessly bourgeois electoral system: their final role is to get fucked over and outlawed in a way that pisses a lot of people off, lays bare the class antagonism at play (this part is pretty bare already tbf) and legitimizes going outside the ruling party's boundaries in the eyes of the public.

      The more we can do to foster and normalize this connection, the more impactful and radicalizing it's predictable severing will be

    • Xiaohongshu is at least still hosted in China. If the US moves to ban the app, the company cant be forced to close servers that host US data like TikTok did.

      It's funny because TikTok moved servers to TX specifically to appease the US govt. Now that TikTok may be gone soon, it may send a message to other app devs that moving servers here is risky, which only makes it harder for the Feds to follow

      • Oh ya I forgot about moving the servers to Texas. Important detail! You are correct.

        I also agree that this really disincentivizes attempting to appease the US. Any company who has even the slightest chance of running against them should do everything to stay out of their jurisdiction. And since who the target might be is pretty much unpredictable, that'll be all of them who aren't per se boot lickers.

    • I would say the purpose is to do agitprop for the rapidly growing and upset English speaking population arriving on the app that doesn’t have a whole lot of English language content to consume. Redirecting some to Hexbear would be great for agitprop purposes, especially since the Americans moving to Xiaohongshu are most likely ones who are extra upset

      • doesn’t have a whole lot of English language content to consume

        that makes some kind of sense. tho vague

        Redirecting some to Hexbear would be great for agitprop purposes

        that doesn't make sense. this site hate libs. you want to invite a bunch of libs, conservatives etc to join it?

        I feel like hb needs a front site where everyone is nice.

  • Wouldn’t this be a doxxing risk, since you have to link phone number in order to comment/post on xhs?

    • Only if it’s reverse searchable (I’m unaware of the ability to do this) or if you use real details in your profile.

      So as always, just exercise opsec

    • usually phone confirmation sms phone numbers are not included on profiles.

      the only exception i know of would be Signal, where the profile is tied to your phone number. but everyone who uses it knows that.

      however the company might keep it, sell it, disclose it, etc. you can read the TOS and find out about applicable legislation to learn about the specifics. then you must consider breaches, leaks, negligence, malfeasance etc on top of that.

      if someone gets your phone number they can easily find out everything else about you via past breaches. it is a highly valuable piece of data and anyone should be careful about protecting it.

    • There are temp phone number services that give you real (aka not SIP) phone numbers. That way you can get the code with out using your number. https://www.smspool.net/ is a site I've used before. They accept crypto so you can avoid giving them your cc info.

  • I’ve generally refused to download any Chinese apps for opsec reasons because I have family living and working there. Does anyone know anything about the data privacy of XHS? I’m not concerned about stuff I post on there but about access to the rest of my phone’s data.

  • I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the prohibition against discussing politics means exactly.

    Discussing that people are evading US government media control by being on Xiaohongshu is fine, as is discussing healthcare costs in the US, Luigi, I've seen Chinese users post Aaron Bushnell stuff even.

    I know in the US people use the term "politics" to mean "certain things I personally realize are political" and don't include other things that are definitely political, and it seems this is the case also on XHS, but I don't know where those lines actually are.

  • The terms and conditions link when you sign up are in Chinese and I can't copy past for translation. It would help if they had english translations to legally required forums. I do give them credit that they seem to be pretty straight forward in the initial pop up.

    Languages are very difficult for me. Especially non latin characters.

    Error messges are also Chinese, which I can not read.

    Anyone know what this means?

    • "Incorrect username or password"

      • Thanks. I thought it was wanting me to pick a password to start, but they just wanted my number and I'm on now.

        First thing I saw was this guy ..,and I'm like

        can't get away. But then there was a guy pointing out exactly how to switch the app to Engrish which was nice.

147 comments